Name Generator

Suggests names for characters from lists of real names, and adds the ones you choose to the story's cast.

To open it, choose Suggest names… in the column beside Plan's story pages, Name Generator… in Cast & Places, or Project ▸ Name Generator… (on iPad and iPhone, the ⋯ or + menu).

Choosing names

Tap names to select them, then choose Create Character. Each becomes a character in Cast & Places, with a study page if the project keeps them. Names already in the cast are shown faded with a tick.

New Names draws a fresh set (⌘G). The list is also drawn again whenever you change a choice. To copy names instead, select them and choose Copy, or use a name's context menu.

Choices

On iPhone, choose Choices to see these.

• Who: women's names, men's, or either.
• Shape: up to three forenames, initials instead of forenames ("J. R. Pigott"), double-barrelled surnames, and alliteration.
• Keep or match: keep a forename or surname you've already chosen, or use only names that start with, end with or contain some letters. Accents are ignored.
• How unusual: at Common, names come from the top tenth of each list; at Anything, from the whole list.
• Name lists: British, American, Irish, Scottish, Victorian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Japanese names; surnames from classic literature; and everyday words that could be surnames. Polish surnames take their feminine form for women (Kowalska).

Your own lists

Choose + Add your own list…, give it a name, choose what it holds, then type or paste names (one per line, most common first) or read them from a text file. Your lists are kept on this device.